WE NOW KNOW WHAT MANY EMPLOYEES HAD LONG SUSPECTED: The office isn't always necessary to do our jobs. Just four years ago, 75% of workers were fully on-site, according to Gallup, with only 4% of employees regularly working remotely. During the height of the pandemic, office attendance plummeted by as much as 90% in major cities; this year, with return-to-office mandates in full swing around the country and across almost all work sectors, those levels have only rebounded to about half of pre-pandemic occupancy.
As a result, businesses of all stripes are reevaluating their approach to office design, looking for ways to persuade employees to show up in person. Fast turned to five architecture and design firms, each of which is grappling with the challenge both for clients and for their own employees. We gave each studio a different workplace scenario—from the full-time, returntooffice mandate to getting Gen Z staffers to
